Tis the season for soup!

I am bat shit crazy about soup. It's one of the first few things I learned to cook - which is a really great place to start because a little bit of almost every cooking technique is involved in making a fab pot of soup. Sautéing, braising, simmering, double boiling, pureeing, thickening, etc. - I know it's exciting stuff. Anyway, the temperature is dropping here in Texas and I've been souping it up a lot. That being said, there is one soup I make almost all year long & I eat it for breakfast almost everyday. (Why breakfast? Well, because it's full of vitamins, it's easy to digest so it helps wake up your digestive system first thing in the A.M. & eating soup helps hydrate you.) So many of my friends are curious about this morning soup action & have asked me for the recipe. I figured I would just post it here rather than track everyone down and email it out.

Here we go!

*Morning Monster Soup*

1-2 table spoons olive oil (I just eyeball it - like everything else in this recipe)
1 large onion diced
1 large turnip diced small (If you don't like turnips - get over it)
3 garlic cloves smashed or minced (add more if you like)
2 teaspoons thyme (you could use dill, but dill makes me ill so I never go that route)
5 cups veggie broth
*Okay this is important - if you are not making your own broth please use something with low sodium content. If you find yourself wishing that your soup was saltier later on - just put some Braggs amino acids in when you are serving yourself a bowl - cool?
1 large zucchini sliced into half moons
2 stalks celery chopped
6-7 stalks kale rinsed, drained, de-stalked and chopped (say that 5 times fast)
1/2 a lemon - juiced
pepper to taste if you like

In order to dance this mess around you'll want to:

1. Put your olive oil in the pot - let it get hot & add the onion & garlic.

2. Once the onions are starting to get soft add your turnip & thyme. Saute for 2-3 minutes.

3. Add your broth & zucchini - now simmer on medium high for 5-7 minutes

4. Time to add the lemon juice & kale.

5. Once the kale is super green and starting to get soft you'll want to take 1-2 cups of the soup out of the pot and puree it in a food processor, blender, or if you have a hand held blender just pop that in the pot for a few seconds to help spread that hulky green color around.

6. Mix the blended stuff with the chunky stuff and boom! You are done.


*this photo was taken with my phone - it's not the best photo in the world, but you get the idea.

I like to serve my soup with extra lemon & some pumpkin seeds for an additional dose of manganese, phosphorus, iron, copper, zinc & protein. Noms!

Seasoning Alternatives:
If I'm feeling a sickness coming on I will add turmeric, cayenne pepper, the juice of 1 whole lemon & more garlic.

Well, I thought I'd never say this, but that's enough about soup for one day.

Enjoy!
Bonnie Rue

Soup, Beautiful Soup

Last night I found myself at Emo's watching PJ & The Bear. I was happy to see my dear friend Pat there too. Like it happens with friends as you get older you see less and less of eachother. People get busy, move further away, blah blah. Pat is generally on tour which is pretty exciting. At least I don't see him because he is doing something interesting.
So, we get to visiting, catching up & what not. Pat informs me that he's been cooking a lot! This is very exciting because he once was a typical bachelor, consuming only things made out of potatoes, or worse - coffee, beer & cigarettes. He tells me that he's into soups. Says he's makes a killer tortilla soup. I don't think he knew this, but I am a "Soupie" & as such I challenged him to a "Soup Off". Heck Yes!
Today I was thinking about it & I dug through my recipes to see which soup I was going to put in the ring & I decided on this awesome Indian bean soup.
It's really tasty & pretty unique I think. So I wanted to share the recipe with you.
For a split second I thought that I should not post the recipe until after the soup off, I don't want show my cards ya know? But I'm pretty sure Pat doesn't read my blog, so here we go.

Indian Bean Soup
serves 6

Ingredients:
4 tbsp vegetable oil
2 onions peeled and chopped
1 1/2 cups potatoes cut into chunks
1 1/2 cups chopped parsnips
1 1/2 cups chopped turnips aka rutabaga
2 sticks celery chopped
2 medium zucchini sliced
1 green bell pepper seeded and chopped
2 garlic cloves crushed
2 tsp ground coriander
1 tbsp paprika
1 tbsp mild curry paste
5 cups veggie stock
1 14 oz can black eyed peas (drain and rinsed of course)
handful chopped cilantro to garnish

here's what you gotta do:
Heat up the oil add all the prepped veggies except for the zucchini & the bell pepper.
Stir it up for 5 or so minutes then add the garlic, coriander, paprika, & curry paste
cook & stir for another minute

then ya gotta:
Stir in the stock, season w/ salt & pepper to your liking. Bring to a boil
cover & simmer over low heat for 25 minutes

after that:
ya gotta stir in your pea's, zucchini & green bell peppers. Cover & cook for
another 15 minutes.

this next step I feel is optional, but it does make for a thicker texture (if you are into that sort of thing):
transfer a little over a cup of the soup to a blender, puree that shit &
then put it back in the pot with the rest of your delish soup.

now you are done. Grab a ladle - serve it up, top it off with some
cilantro & TAH DAH!
Dinner :)

if you decide to make this soup please let me know what ya think.
I made it a week ago & Austin ate it all up so fast that I didn't get a chance to take pictures... there will be Soup Off pictures though. You can be sure of that!